"BACK-TO-THE-LAND"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 52, 24 November 1937, Page 3

"BACK-TO-THE-LAND"

Campaign Launched In Britain RESTORING FERTILITY A determined- back-to-the-land campaign is being conducted throughout Britain. For its part the Government has launched a scheme for restoring some part of the fertility of the land. The Government's offer to the agricultural industry was that the Government would provide half the cost of purchasing and transporting lime, and a quarter of the "cost of basic slag, to be used on arable fields and meadows. These are the two hoine-produced inor-' ganic f ertilisers which can do most toward improving land which has become "tired" or "sour." Follownig the establishment in August of the land fertility committee, with Lord Cranworth as chairman, this mueh has been rccomplished. Six thousand two hundred farmers have applied for contributions under the scheme for lime and slag, whiehhas been delivered to them and spread as an autumn dressing for next year's crops. Further applications from farmers are being- received at the rate of 600 a day. Many of these applications come from farmers and land owners who for many years past have not been able to afford lime for their land. Many disused chalk pits are being opened again for the production of lime. All eommercial producers of lime and basic slag have come under the scheme. The total number of distributors registerCd "990. Go far more than 60,000 tons of lime have been distributed to the farms. The supply vill increase daily now that lime kilns are being reconditioned.